DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Jan 23, 2006) -- NASCAR announced today the Car of
Tomorrow will begin competition in 2007. Teams will use the newly-designed
race car for 16 events next season, beginning with the spring race at
Bristol Motor Speedway -- currently the fifth event on the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup
Series schedule.

A five-year project overseen by NASCAR Vice President for Research and
Development Gary Nelson, the Car of Tomorrow offers important safety and
performance upgrades. It also addresses cost reduction, providing teams with
a more efficient car to produce and tune.

"The Car of Tomorrow represents one of the sport's most significant
innovations, and we feel everyone involved in NASCAR will experience the
benefits," said NASCAR President Mike Helton. "No subject is more important
than safety, and while the Car of Tomorrow was built around safety
considerations, the competition and cost improvements will prove vital as
well."

Aside from Bristol events, teams will use the Car of Tomorrow in 2007 events
at Phoenix International Raceway, Martinsville Speedway, Richmond
International Raceway, Dover International Speedway and New Hampshire
International Speedway.

It also will see action at Darlington Raceway, the fall event at Talladega
Superspeedway and road-course events at Infineon Raceway and Watkins Glen
International.

With the exception of the 2.66-mile Talladega track and the two road
courses, all tracks where the Car of Tomorrow will debut in 2007 are short
tracks.

Teams will run the entire 2009 schedule with the Car of Tomorrow, adding
both events at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Lowe's Motor Speedway and Texas Motor
Speedway, plus events at Chicagoland Speedway, Kansas Speedway, Las Vegas
Motor Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway. The rollout schedule could be
sooner.

"All of our engineering staff and each of the teams and manufacturers that
contributed will now be able see the product of their hard work in
competition," Nelson said. "Many of the obvious safety and competition
benefits have been a topic since the beginning of this project. We think one
of the major benefits is yet to be realized as the car owners begin to build
a more cost-efficient race car."

The next round of Car of Tomorrow on-track testing will be scheduled
following Speedweeks in Daytona, with officials from the NASCAR Research and
Development Center in Concord, N.C., refining car components and performance
baselines.

The Car of Tomorrow is a collaborative effort, with Nelson's team leading
the way. Manufacturers, teams and industry suppliers all contributed during
the design phase, with NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series teams and drivers offering
important feedback during the latest round of on-track testing.

NASCAR's prototype car, built by the Research and Development staff, is
driven by Director of Cost Research Brett Bodine, a former NASCAR NEXTEL Cup
competitor and team owner.

The Car of Tomorrow began as a design five years ago, progressing through
simulation, laboratory and wind tunnel tests. Of primary significance are
the safety innovations: the Car of Tomorrow is four inches wider and two
inches taller than current NASCAR race cars. The driver compartment, or
"roll cage," has been shifted three inches to the rear. The driver's seat
has been shifted four inches to the right, allowing more protection from a
driver's side impact. More "crush-ability" is built into the car on both
sides, ensuring even more protection.

The Car of Tomorrow exhaust system is another safety innovation. It runs
through the body, diverting heat away from the driver and exiting on the
right side.

Another important Car of Tomorrow feature is performance -- how the car
handles in traffic and reacts to downforce. The project represents the
latest move by NASCAR to reduce current cars' aerodynamic dependence, and
several innovations have addressed it:

• The windshield is more upright, designed to increase the amount of drag,
thereby slowing the cars.

• The more box-like front bumper, which is three inches higher and thicker,
catches air rather than deflecting it, another way to slow the car.

• The air intake is below the front bumper, which eliminates the problem of
overheating. Wind-blown trash can cover current car grilles, blocking air
flow.

Several components -- both those built into the Car of Tomorrow and those
being tested -- will make the car easier to drive in traffic. Some of those
components also are bolt-on, bolt-off pieces that teams can use to tune
their cars, making them cost-efficient as well. Those include:

• The "splitter," a flat shelf below the front bumper that can be adjusted.

• A wing, like those commonly used in sports car series, also is a
possibility. It fits on the car's rear deck lid, in the same spot where the
spoiler is bolted.

• The spoiler, a NASCAR staple, is a straight line on the Car of Tomorrow,
rather than curved, as on current cars. A straight spoiler yields more
stability in traffic.

"We designed this car to run for a long time, at road courses, short tracks,
intermediate-sized tracks all the way to Daytona," Nelson said. "You would
be able to run the same foundation car, the frame, the cage, the body, all
of the components that today are being swapped around as the cars are
purpose-built for certain types of tracks. We're eliminating that with this
car."